Pacers Hopeful Of Retaining Draft Pick But Don't Regret Ivica Zubac Trade

6 pick is the furthest Indiana can fall in the lottery, as they're starting from the No. 2 spot. The Pacers have never won the lottery in franchise history, with the highest pick they've made being No. 2 overall in 1988 when they drafted Rik Smits. Pacers GM Chad Buchanan said the team recognized the risk at the time of the trade. When we made the trade, obviously we knew there was risk involved as there is in any other trade, Buchanan said in a recent radio interview. With the draft pick involved, we looked at the finances of the situation and the scenario where you keep the pick, the scenario where you lose the pick. We felt that both scenarios provided opportunities to help our team be better next year. Indiana's GM said that the team intends to be back to being a contender next season, assuming better health. Buchanan views Zubac as a big part of the Pacers climbing back up the standings. The core of this comes down to Ivica is a great player, Buchanan said. We've been a big believer, a big fan of him for a long time. This team has shown that it's capable of doing some really special things. We were missing a starting center that we thought could keep us in that mix. We owed it to this group and these fans and our community to put us in position to try and do and replicate some of the things we've seen these last two years from this team. Buchanan said a particular need for Indiana is scoring off the bench. He added that with or without the 2026 first-round pick, the Pacers can add talent to their roster. Should we lose the pick, there's other opportunities to improve our team through free agency, Buchanan said. We still have trades. We gain a pick that we can use in the future for a trade. We feel like there's a way to improve our team either way with the ping-pong balls, however they fall for us. We're not putting all our eggs into one basket that, 'Hey, if we don't keep this pick, it's doom and gloom,' because it's not.